Many FM's don't even have the basic information they need to manage and make good decisions, mostly because they either don't have an FM system or they don't use it fully.

Without data, you are managing blind. Data is something you turn into information for decision making, performance management, benchmarking and even evidence for business cases and justifying initiatives.

So how do you start?

If you are a smaller organization, maybe even a Facility Manager with a single building, start with a spreadsheet. But be meticulus in populating, updating and then using it. You can track space, maintenance jobs, time spent on activities and even track occupant calls. Then you can upgrade to a purpose-designed software package once you've proven the value of collecting data and analyzing it. This small step also gives you a better idea of what you need, so you can procure a system with confidence.

Even financial data can be useful as long as it is organized and tracked the way you need it. Ask your finance department for a download into Excel and then use Excel features such as Pivot Tables to do some analysis. If the financial data isn't organized the way you need it, ask finance to add some sub-accounts or see if it has some fields you can use for tracking better.

When it comes to basic facilities related activity, you can track many things in Facility Management. For service calls, for instance, you can sort by department, floor, issue, how long it took to respond or fix the issue and even trend these things over time. All easy to do with Excel and pivot tables or charts. If you've never used a pivot table, now is the time to learn. They are very easy to do, with drag and drop - no coding or formulas involved.

So how do you do it? If you have staff, get them to use spreadsheets for tracking these things. Have a service provider? They may have data already and you just need to ask (or include the requirement in your next contract or specification) Or they can enter it for you.

You can design a spreadsheet to be easy to enter, with protected fields, drop down selections to ensure consistency and even data validation to make sure they entered a number, for instance, not letters, in a field. All easily done. If you don't' know how to create and use this type of spreadsheet, ask your office excel expert or do a Google search. You may even find a template on-line you can use as-is or with minor modifications.

However, before you start, think about things you want to track, what you plan on using it for and how you plan on analyzing it.

Then, you'll have more data than you have now and you will see the benefits as you review and analyze the data, identify patterns and issues, and develop evidence for performance and initiatives.

If you are not sure where to start, ask your Facilities Management colleagues about what they track and how they use it. If they don't, then ask someone else.

With data, even if it's 'little data',you will be further ahead than you are now and you will be able to position your department for improvement.

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